Why Women Are More Likely To Live Longer Than Men

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. What's the reason why women have a longer life span than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we're only able to provide limited answers. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; however, we do not know how strong the relative contribution to each of these variables is.

We are aware that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not because of certain biological or non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. We can see that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can expect to live longer than her brother.

Interestingly, this chart shows that although the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live for صبغ الشعر بالاسود 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half a calendar year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in countries with higher incomes than it is now.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two areas stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was once quite small but it has risen significantly in the past.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, check that these two points are also applicable to the other countries with available information: صبغ الشعر بالاسود Sweden, France and the UK.